DARREN KELLY - NISSAN R35GTR - CONFIRMED FOR 2019
Darren Kelly is an Auckland-based driver backed by Nissan NZ, driving an RB3.4 powered Nissan R35GTR. He's always competed in Skylines and took the Pro-Sport Champion title in 2013, then the Pro-class D1 Drift King title in 2015.
Competitive drifting began for Darren when he purchased an R32 Skyline from a friend, which had been a race car for most of its life. Initial intentions were to keep it as a street car, but that soon changed when he began working at a fabrication shop where he worked with Keg - who went on to start DKM Fabrication.
After much encouragement to start competing, the R32 ended up with a roll cage and other work by DKM Fabrication to get it up to spec - Darren entered his first D1NZ pro-am round and came 4th. Finishing the 2 remaining rounds of the season he was definitely hooked - he spent the off-season upgrading some things and returned the following year to take out the pro-am championship.
Having gained access to the pro class, Darren moved into the R34 chassis for the next season and finished within the top 10 in his first year competing in Pro. Continuing to grow his skills, he went on to win the Pro Championship the following year (2015). Fast forward a few years, the team have built and developed Darren's dream GTRR35 alongside TTT Auto Engineering, and are about to enter this season with what Darren says is the most competitive stage of this car to date.
An impressive drift-career for a young man - winning the Pro Championship in 2015, building his dream R35 chassis and becoming backed by Nissan - he certainly has a few achievements to be proud of.
Darren has recently revealed a new livery to celebrate 50 years of GTR and he can't wait to kick off 2019 at Round 1 BayPark in January. Follow his pages to check it out and stay up to date with his 2019 campaign:
https://www.facebook.com/DarrenKellyDrift/
https://www.instagram.com/darrenkellydrift/
And make sure you grab your tickets to see him competing in person, to either of our currently on-sale rounds, BayPark (12-13th Jan) & Wellington (15-16 Feb)!
